Living in the Real World
by Quinis
Summary: Parts of Damian's life in a world where he doesn't become Batman. Instead, he has a 'normal' life. Story told through Latin prompt phrases (Title from Paramore: Ain't It Fun)


**Notes:** More shared prompts from CaraLee. This time we're doing Latin phrases. I really don't know anything about these phrases so I Googled them. The definitions I'm working off are underneath the phrase in _italics_. I've kind of used them as a theme of the writing for it so each story does link to the phrase...

Damian's age does change between the stories and they are not in chronological order.

* * *

 **Quid pro quo**

 _(a favour or advantage granted in return for something)_

Damian sat in his office, looking over designs for the fall collection when his phone rang. He frowned at it, as if the force of his glare would get it to stop interrupting him while he was working.

He needed to decide on the designs soon if he didn't want his company to loose the ground it had gained over the past year. 'De●Designs' was his company. His baby he started from the ground up, expanding the Wayne name somewhere it hadn't been involved before.

Fashion. His artistic talent combined with his sense for business had proved a winning combination.

"Colin, why is my phone ringing?" he paged his assistant. Colin had agreed to join him in this business venture and proved himself invaluable time and time again.

"It's your wife!" Colin answered back, the words reminding Damian of his other baby on the way.

"Hello?" he quickly answered.

"What took so long?" He flinched at the shortness of his wife's response. The woman could crush him with a hand tied around her back and her hormones were making that an ever closer possibility, despite her being an advocate of the 'no kill' rule.

"Fall fashion," he responded truthfully. "You would not believe how hard it is to find a good dress among these designs. Most of them are hideous and useless for the everyday."

"Ibn, fashion isn't about the everyday. It's about looking good."

"You can look good and still be able to fight- I mean, go about your everyday actions. That's what I've built this company on."

"Tell you what; bring me home some ice cream and avocado and I'll help you choose the next big thing."

Damian thought about that for a moment. Mar'i had been in modelling before their marriage and knew the industry just as well as he did, just from a different angle. A different angle he could probably use right now.

"Deal."

* * *

 **Rara Avis**

 _(Rare Bird)_

Damian Wayne-Grayson walked out of his company building and towards his car. At home, his wife and children were waiting and he couldn't wait to join them.

When he spotted his car, however, he swore and sighed.

"What do you want?" he asked, for perched atop the navy vehicle was Robin. Her short red hair blew in Gotham's breeze and the orange visor shined in the little light offered by the parking lot lamps.

"Your company is suspected of some foul dealings," she said. "The family wants permission to search for the culprit."

Damian raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"So, father asks permission now?" Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Batman one-on-one since the day he quit being Robin, after an argument about killing.

He had seen Bruce, just not Batman.

"'Course not!" Robin chuckled with a smile. "There's a new Batman in town."

"Oh?" Please don't be Tim, he silently hoped.

"Me," a voice said from behind him. It was deep, although lighter than a male voice. Damian felt a smile come to his face as he turned to face the new Batman.

The uniform hid small curves under bulky protection. The cowl covered neck, chin and hair. Even though the face was round, it was by no means sweet. After all, this person could project fear without even saying a word.

Cassandra Cain would be the person to get Batman to retire the cowl and city to her.

"Good," she said, seeing how he approved in his body language. "I was... scared you would not like."

"What? You being Batman? I don't think I could stop you from being Batman, even if I wanted to. Besides, I gave that up a long time ago."

"Did not have to."

Damian shook his head. He had given it up because he had no interest in following in his father's footsteps. Not after the man couldn't bring himself to fully believe Damian would never kill again. One accident, one man who slipped off a bridge and Damian was the bad guy.

At least Mar'i and his siblings had believed him. Even Jason, strangely enough. Damian had expected the Red Hood to have been overjoyed at the thought of Robin killing, not confront Bruce on how 'Robin wouldn't do that'.

"Well, Batman," Damian said formally, although anyone who knew him would know this conversation was a joke, "my company has nothing to hide. Feel free to find out if your lead is right."

Batman nodded and vanished into the darkness. Robin followed with a leap and a laugh.

Damian watched the bird in flight for a moment, feeling wistful.

* * *

 **Sine die**

 _(with reference to business or proceedings that have been adjourned with no appointed date for resumption)_

The universe was conspiring against him. Or his assistant. And possibly his wife. Or both his wife and assistant.

"Colin! Why is there a Wayne Enterprises meeting on my calendar?"

The thin red haired assistant ducked through the door. He was looking Damian in the eyes and had a small knowing smile on his face.

Damian tried to ignore the dread pooling in his gut. It looked like he was in trouble and this wasn't the kind of trouble he could stab his way out of.

"Two months ago, you walked right out of a Wayne Enterprises/De●Designs business meeting. Wayne Enterprises was proposing a joint project-"

"Headed by Bruce Wayne himself," Damian growled. "I am not going to work with my father."

Colin sighed, the 'I know' unsaid.

"I know you didn't intend to meet with them again however, they changed the project leader and it's a good offer."

"...they changed the project leader? To who? Timothy?"

"Richard Grayson."

Damian groaned. If he went to this meeting, the project was as good as happening. Dick was persuasive. However, he also knew that Dick didn't have a head for business.

"According to Mar'i, that's just because he finds it boring," Colin said, "and she thinks that you two would work well together. As partners."

Damian's eyes narrowed. Partners. He had said that Dick once. They were the best.

"Mar'i told you to use that word, didn't she?"

Colin nodded. Unlike the rest of his family and friends, Colin Wilkes was straightforward. And he wasn't going to cancel the meeting even if Damian ordered it.

Damian muttered a few choice curses under his breath.

* * *

 **Annus mirabilis**

 _(a remarkable or auspicious year)_

It was a family gathering as ordered by Julia, also known as Penny-Two. She even went to the trouble of sending out invitations, even though the invitations demanded their presence instead of asking. She had even gone as far as to speak of how it would gladden her father's heart if they had a nice family get-together.

When Julia was reduced to using words like 'gladden' the Batman Family had quickly learnt to follow them. She was just as proficient as getting back at them as her father, perhaps even more so as she wasn't afraid to lock them out of the computers and go and fight crime herself.

Damian walked through the door with Mar'i on one side and Dick on the other. Tal'i was in front of them, walking around the parlour in interest and examining everything. She would ask questions and Dick would answer, sometimes even surprising Tal'i's parents with his knowledge of the objects in the manor.

"Someone's been busy this year," Jason commented when he arrived a few moments later. He eyed the little bundle Mar'i was carrying. "Congratulations. I don't remember getting a notification about this little blessing though."

Dick and Damian both held back sighs. Even after rejoining the family, Jason still had trouble understanding the idea that he was welcome and a part of the family, looking for whatever excuse he could to prove he was an outsider.

"That's because we haven't told anyone yet," Mar'i said. "He was born two months before schedule. He's only been out of hospital for a few weeks."

Jason's eyebrows raised. Two months before full term could be bad for the baby. He looked at the little dark haired baby in Mar'i arms with worry.

"We didn't tell anyone Mar'i was pregnant because we didn't have time," Damian said. "Remember? There was that world crisis father was tending to with the League and Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Two Face were out on the streets. That attack when Scarecrow tried to bathe the city in fear gas, and hit most of Midtown including the Narrows, Fort Clinton and even the East River, making the fish crazy? That happened when Mar'i and I had been planning to share the news. But, after that there was Two Face deciding that the twenty-second was a good enough time as any to attack."

"What Damian is trying to say is, it slipped our minds," Mar'i said. "And then the baby was on the way and we were busy trying to make sure he was okay."

Suddenly, the family not being able to contact the Grayson-Wayne family outside of patrol these past few weeks made perfect sense.

"You knew about this?" he asked Dick. Dick shrugged.

"Not until Damian called me the night Mar'i went into labour. The kids were with Colin but he wanted another person to be by Mar'i side as Ry'an was born."

"Ry'an?" Jason questioned, looking at the peaceful baby.

"His name is Bruce Ry'ander Grayson-Wayne," Damian said proudly.

"We're going to introduce him today," Mar'i added.

"That... is a mouthful," Jason commented, referring to the baby's name.

"It's a good name," Dick said, reaching over his daughter to poke at the baby. "And he's a sweet thing, like his grandfathers."

Jason snorted.

"Yeah, right. Sweet." He had seen Dick make criminals cry for their mummies and Bruce was the original Dark Knight. And considering the kid's parents and his sister - who was currently climbing on a chair to jump onto a table and then probably onto the top of the bookcase to get the book Dick refused to get for her - Jason was going bet on this kid becoming a smart-ass little hell-raiser.

* * *

 **Sub rosa**

 _(happening or done in secret)_

Mar'i and Damian would meet in coffee shops and at his apartment or her apartment. Their meetings were not secret. However, when Mar'i curled up against Damian during a movie she bribed him into watching and it eventually turned into cuddling... well, the resulting realisation between them and the evolution of their relationship was.

Damian noticed the way his heart settled and mind calmed when cuddled up to Mar'i. Mar'i wasn't meant to hear the comments about the movie he muttered under his breath, but she did. She realised that she was infatuated with his worldview.

They talked and decided to start dating. They decided to keep it a secret from their nosey family members. If their romantic relationship didn't work out, then they wanted that to be between them and not the Batman Family.

* * *

 **Magnum opus**

 _(a work of art, music, or literature that is regarded as the most important or best work that an artist, composer, or writer has produced)_

Damian lived in a penthouse apartment, near the Wayne building but far enough that he didn't pass it on his way to work every morning. The apartment was large but seemed small with Damian, Mar'i, their two kids and their dog and cat running around.

Damian came home to the smell of dinner cooking. His wife would be smelling of pollen or fire depending on whether she had been working as security or as a biological expert that day. His children would be playing or working in the living area while Titus napped on the carpet and Alfred lazed in a fading sunspot.

"Hi, dad!" Ry'an would greet him enthusiastically. He would be running around, pretending to be a hero or playing a video game. Damian never saw Ry'an work on his homework. Despite Mar'i explaining that it did get done.

Tal'i would look up and give him an acknowledging nod before going back to whatever she was working on. Homework, a plan or a drawing. Sometimes she would even be reading a book, although she didn't didn't acknowledge him those times.

Damian would greet his children and then hug his wife.

* * *

 **Persona non grata**

 _(an unacceptable or unwelcome person)_

Damian quit being Robin by leaving the uniform on the bench and walking out. Out of the cave and out of the manor. He knew it was going to happen some time, he was too old to be Robin and no one wanted to see him as Batman.

He stayed with Colin for a few months after that. Mar'i and Dick both offered to open their home to him however, he didn't want to intrude on their lives. Besides, Mar'i had also been making plans to move out around the same time and he didn't want to get in the way of that.

Two months after he left, a new Robin soared through the sky. Everyone expected him to be hurt over it, his father hadn't waited long to replace him after all. However, Damian had set it all up. He had arranged for the new Robin to force her way into the position. Carrie knew his secret, he had told her about being Robin. He also knew that she wanted to join in but didn't know how. She wasn't bold enough to go out on her own without a goal so he gave her one: being Robin and Batman's partner. He had arranged for her to 'discover' the secret under the manner while looking after Titus and gave her tips on how best to convince his father to take her on, based more on the stories Dick had told him rather than his own experience. She was older than him but that was just a point in her favour; she was not a child Robin. She could handle herself.

Just like that, Damian had done something no Robin had done. He had hand-picked his replacement.

Damian still fought crime. Just without a name and while dressed in a black trench coat, boots, gloves and a cowl. He made a good pair with the trench coat-wearing hat-donning hero known as Abuse.

Damian didn't know what to do for work, although he had enough in savings that he didn't need to worry about that for a long time. Mar'i, who had been modelling at the time, was the one who suggested fashion. She had been looking at one of his sketchbooks at the time, some sketches he had made while being in the park, mostly focused on the outfits people were wearing. With her guidance and encouragement, Damian crafted a few designs for Gotham fashion. Mar'i called in a few favours and even modelled for him.

A few months later, De●Designs was Damian's full time job and Colin's part time job since the red head was unable to stay out of it with most of the planning happening in his own apartment.

Colin still didn't know if his taking a part time job was something Damian planned or not. All he knew was that as soon as he accepted and the contract was signed, Damian announced that he was finally moving out.


End file.
